Anglia Ruskin University of Cambridge and Chelmsford
today awarded David an Honorary Doctorate for
his outstanding contribution to music as a writer, performer
and innovator.

The following is from the University's Press Release: 'The
Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences is honouring
some outstanding figures from the world of music and
publishing with Honorary Doctor of Arts awards. David
Gilmour attended Cambridgeshire College of Arts
and Technology, a part of what is now Anglia Ruskin
University. It was here that he and his childhood friend
Roger 'Syd' Barrett laid the foundations of Pink Floyd
and British Psychedelia.

'Best known as guitarist, vocalist and writer with
Pink Floyd, he is also renowned for his solo work and
collaborations with other artists including Kate Bush,
Paul McCartney, and Pete Townshend.

'In 1996, Pink Floyd were inducted into the US Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame, followed by the same honour
in the UK in 2005. During the same year, David Gilmour
was made a CBE for services to music. David still has
close ties with Anglia Ruskin University, some four
decades later, supporting most recently The City Wakes
project from the Cambridge School of Art. He is honoured
for his outstanding contribution to music as a writer,
performer and innovator'.

All of us at DavidGilmour.com extend our heartiest congratulations
to David.

Friday 9th October 2009Gary's Latest US Extradition
Appeal Fails

Gary McKinnon, accused of hacking into American military
computers, has failed in his latest bid to avoid extradition
to the U.S. (see our previous stories for details of
Gary's seven-year fight to avoid extradition or click
here.

The High Court decision, announced today, denies Gary
the possibility of taking his case to the UK's new Supreme
Court – the latest blow to his campaign to remain
in Britain. Lord Justice Stanley Burnton said that extradition
was "a lawful and proportionate response"
to the alleged crimes and that the legal issues raised
by the case were not important enough to be considered
by the nation's highest court.

Gary's attorney, Karen Todner, said she was not giving
up: "The legal team are now considering our position
and we will exhaust every avenue to prevent Gary's extradition".
She added that lawyers were considering taking the case
back to the European Court of Human Rights, which has
previously refused to stop his extradition. British
officials have given her legal team two weeks to consider
its options.

Our video window is still running the clip of the Chicago
single, featuring David with Chrissie Hynde, Bob Geldof,
and Gary himself. Click here
to download the single audio with an optional payment
in aid of Autism charities.

Wednesday 7th October
2009David
& Orb Rumours True  Up To A Point

Recent comments by ambient exponents The
Orb's Alex Paterson that they have been collaborating
with David Gilmour are true  up to a
point. David has done some recording with
The Orb and producer Youth, inspired initially
by the plight of Gary McKinnon (see our related
stories). However, nothing is finalised, and
nothing has been confirmed with regards to
any structure for the recordings or firm details
re: any release plans.

Wednesday 30th September
2009On
An Island: First In Space

UK broadcaster Planet Rock holds regular
polls on various rock-related subjects. The
latest asked listeners to name the Greatest
Solo Album Written By A Former Band Member,
and the leading album on the Planet was On
An Island, David's European No. 1 and
US No. 6 release. David's Live In Gdańsk
came in at No. 21, and his first solo album
David Gilmour was also featured at
No. 29.

YouTube watchers will have seen various
audience video clips from David's guest spot
with Amadou & Mariam at London's Union
Chapel in May. We wanted to provide something
with a superior sound, so our sound engineer
Damon Iddins mixed a medley of four tracks
for picture editing. Crisis and the Amadou
& Mariam team have combined forces to
edit their footage, and we can now show you
the results.

Click here
and you will see them, joined by David on
guitar, performing extracts of four songs:
Welcome To Mali, Mouna, Je
Pense A Toi ('I'm Thinking Of You'), and
Beaux Dimanches ('Beautiful Sundays').

The show was part of the Crisis 'Hidden Gigs'
series, highlighting the 'Hidden Homeless',
which was supported by more than 30 artists
including Hot Chip, The Magic Numbers, Pendulum,
Noah & The Whale, and Dodgy. More of the sterling
work of Crisis can be seen at their Website.

Friday 31st July 2009Gary
Loses Review But Fights On

It was announced today that the Judicial
Reviews on alleged hacker Gary McKinnon's
case did not support his fight against extradition.
However Gary's solicitor Karen Todner has
said they won't be giving up.

"We have 28 days in which to lodge an
appeal, which is likely to lead to a hearing
in mid-September. Depending on the result
of that, we may have to make an application
to the Supreme Court (formerly known as The
House Of Lords), which might be heard in Spring
2010. We will continue to explore every legal
avenue until we achieve a just and proper
result. Whatever happens, Gary is not going
anywhere any time soon."

Gary's mother Janis Sharp said: "If Gary's
was such a dreadful crime, he should have
been prosecuted and sentenced here years ago.
Compassion can and must now prevail".

Meanwhile, we now have a promotional video
clip of the Chicago single, featuring
David with Chrissie Hynde, Bob Geldof, and
Gary himself, which can be seen in our video
window on the front page. Click here,
to download the single audio with an optional
payment in aid of Autism charities.

We have been given to understand that the
twin results of the Judicial Reviews will
be announced in London this Friday, July 31st.
There have been two Judicial Reviews: one
to consider the Home Office's handling of
the case (whether Gary's Asperger's condition
had been taken into account); and another
to consider the CPS/Director of Public Prosecutions'
refusal to allow Gary's trial in the UK.

In the event of the Judicial Reviews not supporting
Gary's desire to be tried by his peers in
the UK, his lawyer has vowed to fight on,
as far as the European Court of Human Rights.

We hope that there will be a positive and
speedy outcome to the case; in the meantime,
if you would like to hear a small portion
of Chicago, the Graham Nash song featuring
David, Chrissie Hynde, Bob Geldof, and Gary
himself, please click here.
The full song can be downloaded from www.freegarymckinnon.co.uk,
with an optional donation in aid of Autism
charities.

Tuesday 14th July 2009'If
You Believe In Justice'  Listen To Chicago

David's
re-recording of Chicago, also featuring
Chrissie Hynde and Bob Geldof, and produced
by Chris Thomas, is available today via the
UK Daily Mail newspaper as a download
with a voluntary donation.

The Daily Mail, not generally known for a
liberal stance, has taken up a few crusades
in its time and recently devoted its whole
front page  plus a further four pages
inside  to the plight of Gary McKinnon,
the alleged hacker whose proposed extradition
to the US highlights the one-sided treaty
that currently exists between the UK and the
US.

The song, by Graham Nash and originally recorded
by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has been
treated to new lyrics by Gary's mother, Janis
Sharp, which Graham has generously approved.
The song is addressed to US President Barack
Obama, and highlights Gary's perilous legal
position as he continues his seven-year fight
against deportation, which, under the terms
of the treaty, does not require the US to
produce any proof of wrongdoing; however,
the agreement is not reciprocal and the treaty,
originally put in place by then-Home Secretary
David Blunkett, has been much criticised for
the way in which UK citizens only are exposed
to deportation without a domestic judicial
process.

As previously reported, David and many others
including the Daily Mail are urging the current
Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, to reconsider
Gary's case. David has stated: "The attempt
to extradite Gary McKinnon to the USA for
his naïve hacking has always been a heavy-handed
response and the wrong use of an agreement,
which wasn't even put in place until after
his so-called crime was committed. I am hoping
that common sense will prevail and that the
English justice can be more effectively used
to prevent Gary's extradition".

According to Chrissie Hynde, "Gary McKinnon
is clearly not a terrorist, and the US is
in danger of using a sledgehammer treaty to
crush him like a nut. The US doesn't allow
its own Nationals to be tried abroad, so let
Gary be free to face the music in his own
country".

Today sees the publication of the Judicial
Review into Gary's current position and, to
coincide, the new recording of Chicago
is available as a download audio track. Payment
(as little as 1p) is voluntary, via a click-through
here
on the Daily Mail's Web site, but it hoped
that those sympathetic enough to want to hear
the song will not mind contributing to Gary's
fighting fund.

As you may remember, Gary McKinnon has been
been judged by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen,
one of the world's leading experts in autism,
as having had 'no terrorist agenda' and as
posing 'no harm to society'. So we hope that
you may be able to enjoy the song and 'the
hope that it may bring'.

Rod Stewart was the not very mysterious
guest vocalist for a band called Python Lee
Jackson in 1969 (not to be confused with bassist
Lee Jackson of The Nice). He supplied his
distinctive vocals to In a Broken Dream,
and after Rod's ascent to international success,
the track duly became a hit.

Fast forward to 1992; Rod, casting around
for material, decided to re-record the song
and did so with David Gilmour on guitar. For
whatever reason, the track has been sitting
in the vaults until now, but is to see the
light of day on a new Rod Stewart anthology
set on Rhino Records, The Rod Stewart Sessions
1971-1998.

Tuesday 22nd September is the US release date
for the 63-song, 4-CD boxed set via Amazon.com
 no ex-US details yet.

Apparently, Led Zeppelin bassist and noted
sessioneer John Paul Jones also plays on the
cut, more details on which are below.

Previously Unreleased Rod Stewart Track
with John Paul Jones, David Gilmour to Emerge

A song recorded in the summer of 1992 by Rod
Stewart, David Gilmour and John Paul Jones
will finally be released this September after
more than 17 years of collecting dust.

The track is called In a Broken Dream,
and it's a remake of the song Stewart first
recorded in 1969 as a special guest vocalist
for a band called Python Lee Jackson, which
had crossed over from Australia to England.

The story goes that in April 1969, Python
Lee Jackson's regular singer, David Bentley,
told his bandmates somebody else's voice would
suit the song better. Somehow, they reached
Stewart, who was then singing regularly for
Jeff Beck, and he sat in on this and two other
songs during the London sessions that month.

Despite the song's special guest star, multiple
releases of In a Broken Dream eluded
the charts for three years. In 1972, it finally
became recognised and entered the charts internationally.

As we fast-forward well beyond Rod Stewart's
years fronting the Faces and into his third
decade of solo stardom, we emerge at the aforementioned
year 1992.

He'd just experienced a comeback of sorts
with a series of successful singles in 1989
and 1990, namely This Old Heart of Mine
with Ronald Isley, Downtown Train,
Rhythm of My Heart, and The Motown
Song with the Temptations. Stewart was
entering into a period of collaborations with
other vocalists and musicians.

Having famously reunited with Jeff Beck in
the studio to sing People Get Ready
on the guitarist's 1984 album Flash,
Stewart was now making a habit of recording
with all sorts of people: Tina Turner, the
band Glass Tiger, and pretty soon it would
be Sting and Bryan Adams for the Robin
Hood soundtrack. Even Stewart's own Unplugged...and
Seated album and TV appearance would feature
Ron Wood as a special guest on guitar, a reunion
with his Faces bandmate.

In the middle of all that collaborative work
is when Stewart got together in the studio
with John Paul Jones and David Gilmour over
the summer of 1992, in what appears to be
a previously unreported recording session!

The Pink Floyd guitarist had worked with Jones
longer than a decade and a half earlier. They'd
met up when recording a 17-minute song featured
on Roy Harper's rock album HQ, which
Jones and Gilmour were happy to play out live
on one occasion. (Since we've been talking
about supergroups involving Jones, allow me
to mention that their drummer was Bill Bruford!)

Jones had also worked with Stewart long before
that. Toward the end of his days as an in-demand
session musician, Jones sat in with the Jeff
Beck Group on the recording sessions for Truth.
Consequently, Jones plays organ on that album's
version of You Shook Me, only a few
months before he did the same  plus
bass and electric piano  for Led Zeppelin's
debut album.

Jones had also played as a hired session musician
on two blues covers Stewart recorded in 1964,
before the singer was anybody. These versions
of Good Morning Little Schoolgirl and
I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town
were originally released as Stewart's first
single, in October 1964, and are now available
as some of the earliest tracks on his double-disc
set 1964-1969.

Again, this brings us to the 1992 meeting
of all three musicians: Stewart and Jones
plus Gilmour, who was leading Pink Floyd sans
Roger Waters. Stewart had just about given
up on creating new songs and decided to record
some covers. This superstar edition of In
a Broken Dream was one of six songs Stewart
recorded that summer but chose to put on the
backburner.

All six of these will be included on the final
disc of the 4-CD box set The Rod Stewart
Sessions 1971-1998, offered by Warner
and Rhino. The set is scheduled for a September
22nd release, but preorders are being taken.

Saturday 4th July 2009Beck
And 4th  David Joins Jeff At Albert

As
our US cousins know, July 4th is a day for
celebration, and so it was tonight, when David
joined his friend Jeff Beck onstage. Now we
know how many riffs it takes to fill the Albert
Hall  many of them, and all mighty.

Jeff had performed his usual jaw-dropping
show, backed by his current band of stellar
players  Jason Rebello (keyboards),
Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), and Tal Wilkenfeld
(bass)  but, just when the capacity
crowd thought they'd heard it all, he brought
on David Gilmour.

When the audience bought their tickets, they
didn't know they'd be witnessing what could
arguably be classed as two of the top five
guitarists in the world, but they certainly
got their money's worth. David and Jeff traded
solos on Jerusalem and closed the show
with Hi Ho Silver Lining, which saw
Imelda May joining them on vocals and the
choral participation of the entire auditorium.

The evening was a one-off, with no plans for
it to be repeated, but it will live on in
the memories of those lucky to witness it.

Thursday 2nd July 2009Jamming
At The Moon

David talked to The Guardian newspaper
about Pink Floyd's atmospheric tune Moonhead,
a live jam performed in a BBC TV studio during
Apollo 11's first manned landing on the moon
on July 20th 1969.

Our
regular readers will know that David's houseboat
studio Astoria is one of the best, and certainly
the most beautiful, of London's private recording
studios.

Her hull was recently inspected and deemed
in need of renovation, so she was moved to
dry dock to have a complete steel hull replacement,
which should mean she lasts another 30-40
years with no further major work.

After the new hull was successfully fitted,
she was re-floated and towed back to her berth
yesterday. The photo above was taken by Astoria
studio boss Phil Taylor, and we have some
more to view in the Photo
Gallery.

The boat was built in 1911 for theatrical
impresario Fred Karno, who wanted to have
the best houseboat on the river, specifying
that the deck should be able to accommodate
an entire 90-piece orchestra. David bought
Astoria in 1986 and has used it for recording
and mixing Pink Floyd and solo projects.

Filmmaker Gavin Elder was in attendance throughout
the hull replacement operations, so we hope
to be able to bring you the moving story in
moving pictures at some time in the future.

Thursday 18th June
2009It's
A July Judgement Day For Gary

July 14th is the date for the next step
in the fight to prevent the extradition of
alleged hacker Gary McKinnon. Gary's lawyer,
Karen Todner, has announced that Lord Justice
Stanley Burnton and Mr Justice Wilkie will
decide on Tuesday 14th July whether Gary is
to be extradited to the US to face court proceedings
there.

In the event that the court dismisses the
order then it will be determined if the case
should be tried in the UK. There is a possibility
that the whole case could be dismissed, or
even rebuilt from the start. There are a lot
of considerations, so it is conceivable that
the proceedings could be carried over into
a further day, which would have to be re-scheduled
separately.

Friday 12th June 2009Gary
McKinnon's New Review Due

A judicial review by Britain's high court
of former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's handling
of the Gary McKinnon extradition proceedings
took place in London this week. We are hopeful
that new Home Secretary Alan Johnson may review
the case with a fresh approach, taking into
consideration the crucial medical evidence
that Gary McKinnon suffers from Asperger's
syndrome, previously ignored.

A ruling is expected to be announced next
week.

Monday 25th May 2009Let
Us Play  Union Chapel Show Tonight

Islington's
Union Chapel was the 'hidden' venue for
tonight's musical collaboration between
Amadou & Mariam and David Gilmour. A
packed house had been given event details
only 48 hours in advance, as part of homeless
charity Crisis' campaign to highlight 'hidden'
homelessness.

Amadou Bagayoko (Guitar/Vocals) and Mariam
Doumbia (Vocals) were backed by their usual
band: Laurent Griffon (Bass), Yves Abadi
(Drums), and Boubacar Dembele (Percussion)
and their set included a selection from
their albums including the two most recent,
Welcome to Mali and Dimanche à
Bamako.

The set opener was Welcome to Mali,
with David onstage right from the start,
adding his distinctive flourishes to remind
the world (should it need reminding) of
his complete command of the fretboard.

David played for the whole 9-song set, which
included Radio Mogo, Ce n'est
pas bon, and Masiteladi, all
with a solid rhythmic base, allowing frequent
space for both Amadou and David to stretch
out. Percussionist Boubacar Debele added
dynamics throughout the set, an unexpected
inclusion in which was No Way from
the David Gilmour album. Given a
distinctly Malian flavour, with both Amadou
and Mariam taking lead vocals, it was a
surprise and a delight.

Leaping to its feet in acclaim for the 70-minute
show, the audience was rewarded with one
last song, an impromptu Dimanche à
Bamako that rocked the hall.

All in all, an evening that delivered on
its considerable promise.

Tuesday 19th May 2009Amadou
& Mariam Crisis Show Now Sold Out

Amadou & Mariam's show featuring
a special collaboration with David Gilmour,
has now sold out. One of the homeless Crisis
'Hidden' gigs, the special show is on Monday
25th May at a secret venue in Central
London.

Ticket holders will be informed of the venue
details on the day prior to the show.

Amadou & Mariam, whose albums include
Dimanche à Bamako (Sunday in
Bamako) and their latest, Welcome to Mali,
are huge David Gilmour fans and were able
to meet him at the Mojo Awards a couple of
years ago, so it was natural for Crisis to
suggest a musical linkup. Crisis will receive
all proceeds from the show, which will include
support acts to be announced, after which
Amadou & Mariam will play with their electric
band for around an hour, including a portion
with David Gilmour on guitar.

Crisis, long supported by David, have arranged
'Hidden' gigs to take place in London from
now until June 17th. (The venues are 'hidden'
until 24 hours before the gig, to draw attention
to the very serious reality of 'hidden homelessness'
in the UK.) Details of future shows are at
Hidden
Gigs.

If you weren't able to make it to what promises
to be an unparalleled evening of quality music,
please do consider a donation to Crisis 
they change lives. Amadou & Mariam are
also playing London's Jazz
Café this Sunday, 24th May.
More information is on their Web
site.

David's
only official live performance this year so
far will be one of the 'hidden' Crisis gigs,
where he will collaborate with Mali superstar
duo Amadou & Mariam.

The special
show will be on Monday 25th May at
a secret venue in Central London; ticket
holders will be informed of the venue details
on the day prior to the show.

Amadou & Mariam, whose albums include
Dimanche à Bamako (Sunday in
Bamako) and their latest, Welcome to Mali,
are huge David Gilmour fans and were able
to meet him at the Mojo Awards a couple of
years ago, so it was natural for Crisis to
suggest a musical collaboration between themselves
and David around their May 24th Jazz Café
show. Crisis will receive all proceeds from
the 'hidden' May 25th gig, which will include
support acts, after which Amadou & Mariam
will play with their electric band for around
an hour, including a portion with David Gilmour
on guitar.

As you may have seen from The
Blog, tickets are on sale now
from SEE
Tickets or the Ticket Hotline: (+44)
(0) 871 2200260.

Tickets are priced at £25 plus booking
fee, and there are a few 'VIP Tickets' in
the first two rows, at £75 plus booking
fee, which include a goody bag.

David has long supported homeless charity
Crisis, whose 'Hidden' gigs take place in
London from now until June 17th. (The venues
are 'hidden' until 24 hours before the gig,
to draw attention to the very serious reality
of 'hidden homelessness' in the UK.) For more
details, click here
for the Crisis Hidden gigs, and here
for Amadou & Mariam.

The show promises to be an unparalleled evening
of quality music, but if you're unable to
make it, please do consider a donation to
Crisis  they change lives.

Thursday 16th April
2009Wire
Man Sculptor's London Exhibition

David
MacIlwaine, the sculptor who created David's
'Wire Man' logo, has a new outdoor exhibition
at Clifton Nurseries in Little Venice, London.
He began sculpting 25 years ago when the need
for a unique chandelier drove him to scavenge
the twisted metal rods that supported the
vines above his home near Viareggio in Italy.

Now appreciated worldwide, David's original
Wire Man can be seen on the cover of David
Gilmour In Concert, while other work includes
the logo and graphics of the River Café
and candlesticks for the Liberty retail emporium.

Twenty of his pieces, including The Saxophonist,
The Pianist, and The Diver, will be on show
from now until September at Clifton Nurseries,
with selected large pieces displayed at the
canal-side garden at Blomfield Road, Paddington
Basin. Visit the Clifton Nurseries Web site
here
or the David MacIlwaine Web
site for more details.

Entry to Clifton Nurseries is free, and prices
range for £250 for a small sculpture
to £6,000 for large scale pieces.

David MacIlwaine says about the David Gilmour
Wire Man: "[It's] a piece I created
after seeing David perform a solo show surrounded
on stage by his guitars, a set up which reminded
me of a circle of wagons drawn up in the wild
west. His stance is uniquely recognisable
and I guess he felt the same as he put a picture
of this on the cover of his DVD David Gilmour
in Concert and got someone to animate
it as part of an ad on TV".

Monday 6th April 2009GHS
Strings Picked As Best At Musik Messe

Musical
instrument fair Musik Messe was held last
week in Frankfurt, Germany, and among the
presentations of new recording gear and instruments
was a celebration of the best of the year.
The MIPAs (Musik Messe International Press
Awards) are voted for by over 100 instrument
and recording magazines, and amongst the winners
in 2009 were: Best Strings  the David
Gilmour signature GHS Boomer guitar strings.

These packs, (one for Stratocaster and one
for Les Paul) are David's own choice, compiled
from individual GHS custom Boomer strings,
and previously unavailable in this form. Runners-up
were Elixir bronze anti-rust 80/20, and D'Addario's
EPN strings.

Thursday 26th March
2009David's
Vocal Support For McKinnon Extradition Protest

Gary McKinnon is a Scot, accused of the
computer hacking of US military Web sites,
and under threat of extradition to the US
to stand trial. He has thus far been unsuccessful
in fighting extradition, under the current
extradition treaty between the UK and the
US, seen by many as one-sided.

Gary's mother Janis Sharp is organising a
'sing-in' protest on Thursday 2nd April, involving
a multi-artist rendition of Graham Nash's
'Chicago', which originally referenced the
'Chicago 7', arrested for protesting at the
1968 Democratic Convention. David has contributed
a vocal part to the backing track, although
plans are not yet finalised re: other artists'
involvement.

David is not able to participate in person
at the April 2nd protest, but said: "Gary
McKinnon should not be being extradited to
the USA for his naïve hacking. It is
a heavy-handed response from the US and it's
hard to understand that the English justice
system could not be more effectively used
to prevent this. I am hoping that common sense
will prevail".

Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome by eminent
psychologist Professor Simon Baron-Cohen,
Gary McKinnon has been the subject of a radio
play, The McKinnon Extradition, broadcast
on BBC Radio 4. Further updates will appear
as more information is received.

Thursday 19th March
2009The
Age of Stupid

Tomorrow
marks the UK cinema release of a new film,
six years in the making: an eco-documentary
fusing fact, fiction and animation, called
The
Age of Stupid.

Directed by Franny Armstrong, it stars Pete
Postlethwaite as the isolated curator of a
world museum in the year 2055, a wealth of
gloomy archive material from the fifty years
previous at his disposal. It's certainly something
that everyone should see.

EMI Records UK have invented a new series
of artist-specific Web pages that draw together
most of the main Web areas of interest, designating
them The Ultimate Fan Page for that
artist.

Launched
today, their first dedicated 'digital portals'
include David Gilmour, Pink Floyd,
Syd Barrett, and Genesis.

Each page includes some of the more popular
Web pages related to each artist, plus a pre-loaded
search facility for sites such as Amazon,
Wikipedia, Google, and Flickr.

It also has an updated news feed from bbc.co.uk
and Google, plus a music player.

Of course, every individual will want to use
the Web in his or her own way, but it does
seem to be a convenient way to link together
some of the more common pages that an interested
party might want to explore.

As each page is refreshed or revisited, the
artwork, videos and photos change randomly,
the idea being to give the user a different
experience each time.

N.B. EMI doesn't edit the content, all of
which is already available in Webworld; they
merely provide easy but random access to content
already carried by legal providers.

Each page has a 'feedback' link, so that you
can communicate your thoughts directly to
the creators. Have a look and see what you
think.

Tuesday 10th February
2009It's
A Manz World  But David Sits In

Phil Manzanera's three-night stint Ronnie
Scott's Club in London had an unbilled addition
to the band tonight: David Gilmour on guitar.

The
band that helped Phil on his 'Firebird V11'
album (Leszek Mozdzer, Charles Hayward and
Yaron Stavi) ably recreated its energy for
the first half of the show, a 45-minute set.

Then, after a short interval, David joined
them onstage with a short take on 'Autumn
Leaves' followed by a bluesy rendition of
Sidney Bechet's 'Petite Fleur', the instrumental
probably best-known for Chris Barber's version
featuring Monty Sunshine, which sold a million
copies in the US in 1959.

Final number from the 5-piece was Miles Davis'
'Filles de Kilimanjaro', a masterpiece of
understatement, sensitively played by all.

Through the rest of the show, Phil and band
were able to stretch out on more 'Firebird'
tunes and some classic catalogue material
but also two Roxy Music songs including a
Manzanera vocal on 'In Every Dream Home A
Heartache'.

An impressive night on every level.

Friday 6th February
2009Tuning
In To The Grammys

The 51st annual GRAMMY (originally Gramophone)
Award event will be held in Los Angeles this
Sunday, 8th February. As mentioned, David
has been nominated for Best Instrumental
Rock Performance for Castellorizon
from the Live
In Gdańsk album. His competitors
include Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Rush,
and Zappa Plays Zappa featuring Steve Vai.

If you'd like an early sight of the action,
click on this
link from 4PM US Eastern Time
(1PM Pacific Time/9PM GMT) on February
8. You will see a live stream of the non-televised
portion  the 'Pre-Telecast'  including
nearly 100 categories of awards hosted by
Wayne Brady and Tia Carrere, with some live
music performances.

US TV audiences will get the show live on
Sunday 8th February 2009 at 8PM Eastern Time
AND Pacific Time on CBS. One can only assume
that the West Coasters will get less of the
show.

In the UK, ITV2 will be running a 'highlights'
programme on Monday 9th February at
9PM for 2 hours and 10 minutes.

Performers on the show itself include Lil
Wayne, Coldplay, U2, Paul McCartney, Radiohead,
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Katy Perry
and Carrie Underwood.

There will also be a special Bo Diddley tribute,
featuring Buddy Guy, BB King, John Mayer,
and Keith Urban.

Both EMI and Sony have now manufactured
all the orders they've had from retailers
for the 5-disc LP Vinyl box set of Live
In Gdańsk, with no plans for any
re-runs, but there still are some stocks available
at some retailers.

We don't have a list, but in the UK it is
worth trying amazon.co.uk
and play.com,
both of whom are showing stocks at time of
writing. In the US, try the 'participating
stores' on the recordstoreday.com
site. They are all independents, many of whom
stock vinyl, although not all of them were
able to carry the Gdańsk 5-LP box.

The UK association of record producers,
the Music Producers Guild, has announced the
nominations for its inaugural 2009 Awards,
and Live In Gdańsk has received
a nomination.

In the 'Best Live Album' category, Live
In Gdańsk has been shortlisted, to
include David and Phil Manzanera as producers,
as well as engineers Andy Jackson, Damon Iddins
and Devin Workman, so congratulations to all.
Fellow nominees in the category include Girls
Aloud and Nephu Huzzband.

The event, the first so far staged by the
Guild, takes place at London's Café
de Paris on Thursday 12th February, and will
include other categories such as 'Producer
Of The Year', 'Engineer Of The Year', and
'Best Newcomer'.

David Gilmour Official Website.
Copyright David Gilmour Music Ltd. All rights reserved.